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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23496814">Despair in Lobotomy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BakaJuan/pseuds/BakaJuan'>BakaJuan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Danganronpa X Lobotomy Corporation [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Lobotomy Corporation (Video Game), Zanki Zero: Last Beginning (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Be warned!, Danganronpa IF AU, Everyone gets to work, Just the machine, Multi, Only the Extend Machine appears from Zanki Zero, Survivors, There will be some horror stuff, abnormalities, and gory stuff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:07:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,881</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23496814</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BakaJuan/pseuds/BakaJuan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Running from Despair in a World in Ruins, Makoto Naegi leads his friends to an abandoned Factory of Lobotomy Corporation. There, they will encounter the Rabbit Team who will bring them to the HQ of said Corporation, where they'll have to help to finish the cycle of 50 days Lobotomy Corporation needs to cleanse the World.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Der Freischütz/The Queen of Hatred (Lobotomy Corporation), Ikusaba Mukuro/Naegi Makoto, Ishimaru Kiyotaka/Oowada Mondo, Kirigiri Kyoko/Naegi Makoto, Maizono Sayaka/Naegi Makoto, der freischütz/The Knight of Despair</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Danganronpa X Lobotomy Corporation [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2083968</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>119</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue 1: Despair...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>New story, enjoy everyone...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Prologue 1: Despair…</span>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Juzo Sakakura, here to report, sir!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Ex-Boxer exclaimed after he entered the conference room where his two superiors were waiting for him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah, Sakakura-kun… I hope it’s good news.” Tengan, the head of Future Foundation said with calm as he stared at the man who entered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sakakura, did you find the survivors?” Munakata asked his old friend.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, my team and I couldn’t find them, Munak- I mean, Boss…” Sakakura answered with a lowered gaze as he clenched his hands.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Two sighs were heard in the room when hearing the news. Tengan looked back at the files in front of him, searching for a solution as Munakata walked towards the window and stared daggers at the red sky of the World filled with Despair. He shook his head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How is this even possible.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well there’s a chance they split up, which could make things harder for us… As if it wasn’t already with the Despair assholes!” Sakakura spat at mentioning the enemy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ll clean that.” Tengan commented without lifting his eyes from the documents, “And I don’t think they did this, we saw them leaving the school building together, anyone in their right mind wouldn’t want to be alone in a world like this, not without any equipment.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Tengan-san is correct, they must be together.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But how the fuck were they be able to dodge us or the Despair at the same time? We looked everywhere, we should have crossed paths at some point. It’s been three weeks…” the boxer grunted, “A group of </span>
  <em>
    <span>fifteen teenagers</span>
  </em>
  <span> can’t just disappear like this. It’s almost like they’re being guided…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ That, or that they are either extremely lucky… or </span>
  <em>
    <span>unlucky</span>
  </em>
  <span>…”</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s been a year since the world fell into Despair. The last beacons of Hope, the students of Hope’s Peak Academy were locked in the school for the whole year but were unaware that among them was the source of all the Despair. The students were supposed to participate in a Killing Game that was to be broadcasted to the whole world but with the courage and hope of two students, they managed to cancel the show before it even started. The doors were opened and the fifteen students, alive and mostly unharmed, left the building.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>One month has gone by since that day.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Needless to say that keeping everyone morale high and the group together was extremely hard… But Naegi somehow managed that as he was ‘leading’ the group to their next destination…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That night, the large group was hiding on the second floor of an abandoned and damaged building, everyone was armed with at least one blunt weapon to defend themselves in case of emergency. There were no exceptions. The nights were harsh and breathing was even harsher with the polluted air…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mukuro was keeping guard near a window that had a view on the only entrance of the building. She got rid of the wig that made her look like her sister because of how useless it was during battle, but she kept her clothes. In her hands was a rifle she took from the latest Despair the group managed to restrain.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She didn’t even looked away as she said:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun, you can come. I won’t point my gun at you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Haha…” the Luckster laughed awkwardly as he entered the room, he was a bit on his guard because the few first time it happened she would always point her weapon at anyone nearby while on guard duty.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You can’t sleep?” she asked, this time looking at the Luckster.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No… Do you mind if I keep you company?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...Of course not.” she answered with a faint blush on her cheeks, she’d rather be alone honestly, but she never really managed to say no to the one who saved her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’ll need to change the bandages soon.” she added, looking at his side where Gungnir skewered him instead of her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Y-Yeah I guess but first…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...We need to go where you’re guiding us, you said that you’re sure there will be help over there.” another voice joined the conversation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi jumped but kept his scream down his throat while Mukuro just smiled at his reaction, her eyes still on the streets outside.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You were nice enough to endure the rest of everyone’s caprices, mine included.” Kirigiri added as she took a seat next to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Before they ended where they are now, Naegi suggested going where everyone wanted to go to see if their friends, family, home were safe but no such luck. Sakura’s dojo was defiled with Monokuma tags everywhere, Togami’s mansion was ruined and everyone’s families were nowhere to be found, and there were no hints of their whereabouts or if they were alive.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know… But… The thing is…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You don’t really know where you’re guiding us, don’t you?” Kirigiri finished his sentence.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At hearing that, Mukuro actually stopped looking outside and stared with wide eyes at the revelation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun, is she telling the truth?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... Yes… I… I don’t really know where exactly we’re going but I can… feel?... That something is calling me there. That it’s very important that I go there, that it’ll help us.” Naegi explained.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The girls didn’t say a word, staring at the Luckster.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry for lying to you…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay, Naegi-kun.” Mukuro said, “It’s not like we have any other choices, anyway.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And we can always just start looking again if your… destination isn’t going to help us. We don’t have much to lose beside time…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll protect you if anyone starts threatening you.” the soldier added before shifting back her focus on the streets.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kirigiri nodded and Naegi smiled, reassured.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you…” he whispered.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finding not one but three functional cars with enough fuel to transport the class was nothing short of a miracle, or an amazing luck some would say while looking at Naegi. Or almost as if they were being helped by some unknown force, Hagakure would say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But the fact was that the 15 young adults were now leaving the last city they were hiding to go where Naegi was guiding them with Sakura, Mukuro and Mondo on the wheel. They drove for hours just to leave the city and reach what should have been a green landscape before the Tragedy but now looked like a Far West desert.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi? Are you sure we’re on the right way? We really need to find something to heal our injureds.” Mondo yelled out the window to speak to Naegi who was in Mukuro’s car. He glanced back at Ishimaru who had a few bullet wounds on his side.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>But the Moral Compass wasn’t the only one hurt, Yamada got his belly sliced open by a Despair armed with a machete on the second day and Hagakure has a broken nose from Mondo for trying to run away with some food they found, thank Goodness Naegi was there to save the idiot adult from being abandoned by his classmates. Finding medical aid was extremely hard, they got lucky to find some during their first week but now it was starting to run out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am. Keep going.” The Luckster said, determined. This was feeling familiar… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But not only for him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Someone else had a feeling of déjà-vu.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After a while, the survivors found a large, seemingly abandoned, warehouse near a factory.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is it!” Naegi exclaimed after a low grunt and a small migraine.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The cars parked near the entrance of the building.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi… This place looks abandoned.” Togami noted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… No I’m sure it must be here… I mean…” He didn’t finish his sentence as he ran towards the entrance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He tried opening the large door but it was chained up from the inside.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s locked… B-But from the inside! S-So there must be someone in there!” Naegi exclaimed, sounding a bit desperate, which was a bit unusual.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun… Where are we?” Sayaka asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At hearing that question, he couldn’t help but sweat.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… I don’t know…” he confessed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Time seemed to stop when those words came out of his mouth.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“What do you mean… ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>you don’t know’</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Mondo was the first to break the silence, fuming in anger, “Naegi… Tell me you didn’t drag us here, in the middle of </span>
  <em>
    <span>nowhere</span>
  </em>
  <span>, with </span>
  <em>
    <span>injured </span>
  </em>
  <span>people, without knowing where you were going!” He yelled.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Bro… It’s oka-” Ishimaru tried to calm down the Biker.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No it isn’t.” Togami cut, “Naegi. We’re almost out of fuel to go back to the city. Why on Earth did you bring us here.” he glared at the Luckster.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mukuro and Kirigiri immediately could feel that the group might start to divide and that some of them might start to get hostile towards Naegi... and that wasn’t what they needed at the moment. They were about to interrupt but someone else did with a yell.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“G-G-G-GUYS! Forget about that! W-W-What do we do about them!?” Hagakure yelled, pointing at a cloud of dust coming their way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mukuro didn’t waste a second to jump on top of one of their vehicles and look through the handmade visor on top of her rifle. What she saw made her skin crawl in dread.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Despairs incoming!” she yelled.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was only one big truck but she could see among them three Monokuma units, the same size as Mondo, and could count at least five Despair humans wearing Monokuma masks.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>The truck was armed up with blades and pointy sticks while it seemed that one Despair was on top playing a harmonica that spit fire, being held up by two of the Monokuma bots. Two Despairs were on the front seats and the last two were yelling their lungs out with machetes while grabbing on the doors. The last Monokuma was waving a pole where at the tip of it was attached a corpse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Three Monokumas and five Despairs!” she counted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The students all had worried expressions, Despair people are a very dangerous bunch to take care of and Monokuma Units are even more dangerous as they were very strong. They could run but there was not enough fuel to escape by car, the factory wasn’t close enough for them to get near without the Despair catching up to them and the only place to hide was in that locked warehouse. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright! Everyone in position! The fight team gets ready to buy time, the rest, find a way to get inside!” Togami ordered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The ‘fight team’ was composed of Mondo, Sakura, Asahina, Leon, Togami, Fukawa (who immediately left the spot for Jill) and Mukuro. Ishimaru was also part of that group but was pretty much forced to not participate in the ‘operations’ because of his injury.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sakura and Asahina were both armed with slings while the rest besides Jill and Mukuro were armed with metal bars and baseball bats.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright everyone, let’s find a way in, quickly!” Kirigiri instructed the rest of the group before they started to search for any way inside the warehouse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi. When all of this is over, we still have to talk. You have some explaining to do.” Togami added with a glare towards the Luckster before he could leave.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Y-Yeah…” was all that Naegi could say as he turned his back on them to help the rest of his classmates.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ikusaba. Can you shoot the driver from there?” the Heir asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, there’s bars on the front and his driving is too crazy for me to get a clear shot.” she explained.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then shoot the tire. It should at least give us more time.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She didn’t wait for his instruction to fire, it was a good plan and the sooner the better.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She pulled the trigger and the truck, still far from their position nearly crashed to the side. She fired again and this time the truck did crash to the side. Unfortunately, there were no casualties as the Despairs and Monokumas managed to climb out of the truck and were now running towards the survivors.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Everyone get ready!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>-Please be right about this place, Naegi-kun…-</span>
  </em>
  <span> Mukuro thought as she switched from her rifle to her combat knife, as she was almost out of ammunition.</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Despair...</strong>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>
      
    </strong>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Prologue 2: ...in...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Battle outside the warehouse,  the other tries to get in. But will they find salvation?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Baka's notes: Hello Hello, back with the continuation of Despair... What is going to happen?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Prologue 2: ...in…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you find them yet?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did you find them yet?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did you find them yet?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did you find them yet?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Listen Enoshima, I would have found them earlier if you had asked for my service a month ago when your plan failed and they all have left the school ground.” the man growled over the phone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t know they’d be </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> good at ‘Hide and Seek’! Not even my analytical skill saw that coming!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What an Analyst you are.” the man scoffed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey shut up! I’m sure Naegi’s Luck is what’s countering my skills.” Junko groaned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right, the kid that ruined your game before it even started.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Anyway, you found something yet?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Actually, I think I just did.” The man smirked as he stood up from where he was examining.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was looking around a large room </span>
  <span>on the second floor of an abandoned and damaged building.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Really?! Explain!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, this place shows that at least a dozen people have been hiding here for at least a couple of days. The neighboring room also has some nice exposure to the entrance, perfect for staying on guard in case anything happens. A group lived here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And how do you know it’s our wanted targets?” Enoshima asked, it could be any group of unfortunate souls.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There were wheel marks of three large cars outside, from the look of it, they all left at the same time this morning. Impossible to even find a working vehicle in this dump of a city.” the man explained.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So only luck would have found three functional cars for a large group. It’s them! Where are they heading?” Junko demanded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey wait. I did half of my part. I first need confirmation of the rest of the deal.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sure, sure, Senpai~! I just sent you the whooole list of Future Foundation members. And as you guessed, your best friend Ethos-Senpai is now part of them.” the Ultimate Despair cooed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see… Which branch?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Na-ha-ha~! When you have a location on the whereabouts of our little hopes, then I’ll give you all the information you want. Alright, so where did they go?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...It will take a while, finding ‘nests’ is easy, but the trajectory of three cars is another story.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So you can’t find them? Booo!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Heh, are you kidding? I’m the Ultimate Hunter, it’ll be a piece of cake. Just a big one.” Michael Hyde laughed despite half his face being torn open.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay! Hope to hear more soon, Hyde-Senpai! Byyye~!” Junko sang before hanging up the phone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Looks like she finally found a trace of where her stupid sister and the rest of her lovely classmates disappeared, only a matter of time before she finds them. </span>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>While the rest of the class searched for a way in, the fighting team was doing their best to slow down the attackers who were approaching them. Asahina and Sakura used their slings to throw rocks at the assailants. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile, Leon would throw rocks with his Baseballer skills.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Despairs were rather quick to hide behind the Monokumas Units who could take a hit without too much damage but Leon finally managed to hit one of the Despair in the kneecap and made them fall, they couldn’t get up and a Monokuma literally stomped on them to continue its advance. There was no way to tell if that Despair was dead or just knocked out but there was no time to care.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That at least made one enemy less for the battle.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Monokumas and Despairs were only a few seconds away before collison, they all got ready for the fight but Chihiro suddenly appeared.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“G-Guys! We need help to get in!” the Programmer asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wh-What? But they are coming!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll go! Guys be careful-Aah!” Asahina announced before yelping as one of the Despairs suddenly did a mad dash and jumped towards the swimmer with a hammer ready to be swung down on her head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thankfully, Sakura was faster and punched the Monokuma mask wearing person straight in the gut, sending him flying away and knocked out in one hit.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Go! We can’t protect you if you’re here. We’ll buy as much time as possible!” Sakura said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay! Be careful!” Asahina nodded and ran off with Chihiro.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now that it was only them and the Despair, the fighting group got ready for the battle.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, no time to argue, Ikusaba, Oogami and Jill you go against the Monokumas, Kuwata, Oowada and I we go against the Despair fools. Ready.!” Togami ordered loudly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Like he said there was no time to argue, the enemy was there!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mukuro was the first to act as she pushed two Monokumas away with a kick and then leaped at the last one, knife in hand to clash against the claws. Sakura was next to grab one of the two other mechanical bears by the arm and throw it to the ground while Jill threw her scissors on the last one to make it step away from her prince.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wow, the chicks in our group sure are something.” Mondo said, still surprised by how strong these girls his age were.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The last three Despairs were each armed with a machete, a metal bar and a baseball bat with nails sticking out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thank God none of them had any firearm. At least the fight was even.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now it was only a matter of time: the other group must find a way in so they can escape since there was no way they could beat the Monokumas, not with their equipment, or else they’ll fall from exhaustion or injuries.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys! There’s a back door!” Sayaka exclaimed as she saw the door in question.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The rest of the group quickly surrounded her as she tried to open it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Huh? It’s not locked… But I can’t open it.” the idol said as she tried to push the door open, she tried to pull but still nothing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wait let me try!” Ishimaru said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Let me help.” Naegi joined him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two teenagers slammed their bodies against the door and indeed, it didn’t feel locked but rather…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Something is blocking the door on the other side!” Ishimaru exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“H-How do we get in then?! What do we do?!” Hagakure panicked, his trepidation starting to spread among the other survivors.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Up there, through that window.” Kirigiri calmly said, pointing at a broken window near the top of the wall.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Having no time to argue, Naegi volunteered himself to get to the other side and find a way to open the door. But unfortunately, Ishimaru and Yamada were injured so they couldn’t lift him up. Kirigiri couldn’t lift him up high enough either. Celeste, Sayaka and Chihiro weren’t much help and Hagakure was just too weak.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Programmer suddenly ran off, shouting that they’ll get someone to help.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>While waiting shortly for the small teenager to come back with someone, Kirigiri reminded Naegi of his task once he’s on the other side.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Find a way to get us in, any way possible and quickly. Not everyone can get through that window.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Got it…” the Luckster nodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys! I’m back with Asahina-san!” Chihiro exclaimed with the Swimmer right behind them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m here! What’s the matter? Is it the door?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hina, we nee-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Move aside! Yah!” Hina quickly slammed herself once then twice against the door, “I think something is blocking the door on the other side!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“W-We know! We wanted help to get Naegi-kun through the window.” Chihiro stammered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I see! My bad! Alright let's go!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Asahina and Kirigiri both helped Naegi up the wall where he could reach the window, he used his small metal bar that most of the team were armed with to break the rest of the broken windows to not cut himself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once everything was clear he pulled himself up and with a push from both girls lifting him, he jumped to the other side, but-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“AARGH!!” he suddenly yelled.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun! Are you alright?!” Sayaka shouted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m afraid not. Something cut my leg very bad! I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t move, I’m coming. Asahina-san, help me out.” Kirigiri said and turned towards the swimmer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Be careful! There’s some sharp objects near the wall below the window.” Naegi warned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time, Asahina alone was able to lift Kirigiri up towards the window as the detective was more agile than the luckster. With the window border already cleaned up she managed to jump through and avoid what injured Naegi in his fall. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She jumped and landed next to Naegi who was sitting on the floor. She looked back and saw that there were some sort of blades stuck on the walls, one of them was freshly dripping with blood. A lot of blood.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She quickly turned towards her classmate and asked him to show his injury. It was a very deep slash on the shin.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We need to stop the bleeding. This is going to hurt…” she said to him as she undid her tie to wrap it around the injured leg.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When she squeezed his leg, he threw his head back in pain with a yell and under a nearby table. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What is it?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There’s an axe taped under the table.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kirigiri helped Naegi up and reached for the said axe. She pulled it out and felt something strange from the weapon the moment she grabbed it. But she decided to ignore it and examine the axe, it was a small hand axe, though the head was rather large and very red.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think we can use the backdoor…” Naegi sighed as he saw large furnitures stacked against the door, “But there’s a lock on the main door. We can probably break it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, let’s see if we can destroy the lock with that axe, let’s hurry.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys! Get ready to go through the main door!” Naegi yelled out to his friends outside.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A-Alright! Let’s go!” they heard Asahina say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The duo quickly ran towards the main door of the warehouse but not without taking a good look at the place. It was pretty empty and had no much light entering the place, there were broken stairs leading to the now inaccessible upper floor, some empty large metal containers, no way to know what was once inside. But most importantly, there was dry blood on all walls and floor, there were traces of a fierce battle but no corpse to be found. Like before, there were some sort of blades stuck on the walls, some with blood, some were broken. They had no idea what those were. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>They reached the locked door and Kirigiri raised her axe and swung it down with full force.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Rrah!” Togami groaned as he swung his metal bar towards the head of a Despair.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But the man dodged to the side, exactly as the Heir hoped since Leon was that way and prepared a powerful swing with his baseball bat. The Baseball star hit the Despair square in the chest, a loud crack confirming the breaking of a few ribs as the Despair collapsed on his knees, wheezing for breath and coughing blood inside his Monokuma mask.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Togami used this opportunity to kick him in the head, knocking him out for good.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oowada! Do you need any help?” Leon asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Leon and Mondo managed to defeat their opponent but one of the Despair that was previously unconscious woke up and attacked the biker.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nah, I’ll be fine! See?” he said as he dodged and punched the man in the Monokuma face, “Help the others instead!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The girls for their part had trouble with the real dangers of this fight, the Monokuma were very agile and tricky despite being very large. Mukuro, only armed with a knife, was mostly dodging and keeping the attention of the robot on her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jill on the other side was taking hit after hit and laughed through the pain and blood as she kept cutting through the bear’s metallic surface. And Sakura managed to leave a few dents on her robotic opponent despite a few cuts on her arms and clothes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Togami and Leon were about to help them but they saw the rest of the group approaching.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing here!?” Togami shouted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The doors are about to op-” Asahina started but the loud sound of metal breaking cut her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly the large door opened up with Naegi and Kirigiri behind it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hurry up! Over here!!” Naegi yelled.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sakura grabbed her Monokuma by the arm and threw it against another, grimacing at the claws stabbing her shoulder. Mukuro kicked hers and everyone ran inside the warehouse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Ultimate Fighter quickly grabbed Naegi’s metal bar to block the door behind them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh my God, Naegi, are you alright?” everyone heard Sayaka worry about his leg injury.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be fine.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The door won’t hold for long.” Celeste noted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi, you lead us here, now what do we do?” Togami glared at the Luckster who was looking around for a solution.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>Mukuro looked at the broken lock on the floor, it was brand new. That raised her a few question about how Kirigiri broke it. She also could guess it was Kirigiri since she was the one with an axe in her hand.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Luckster looked around, looking in pain as he held his head. With his face expressing his pain, he pointed at a large double door near the stairs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“T-That way! Come on!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They all ran inside the room which looked like a big empty storage room, there were automatic lights but only one was working in a corner.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi! There’s nothing here!” Hagakure yelled in panic.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do we do?!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why did you bring us here?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aaaah!” Naegi screamed in pain, supporting himself against a wall.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun!” Kirigiri and Mukuro exclaimed at the same time to help him as he seemed in pain.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly the whole room shook and a broken voice came out from a loudspeaker they couldn’t see.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“W$^co§€ ~ac$ *aeg£ Ma@$€to”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then the room started to tremble. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Everyone started to look around in panic, not understanding what was going on around them. Only Kirigiri calmed herself down faster and knew what was going on.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is an elevator. And we’re going down.” she said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Down?! Down where?!” Ishimaru exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi! Explain yourself!!” Togami pretty much started to roar at that point.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… I think I know where we are now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then where are we? Is there help?” Sakura asked, making sure that no one else was injured.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Th-There should be. After all we-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly the whole room shook violently, a new wave of confusion washed over the survivors and this time it was Mukuro who immediately knew what was going on as she lived something similar in the past.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Despairs! They’re cutting the cables of the elevator!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The room shook once more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hold on to something! Anything!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Before anyone could interject that there was nothing to hold on to, the room submitted to gravity and fell down at full speed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There seemed to be a few bumps during the ride down as if they hit something in the fall, and the only light working broke.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And in the darkness of the falling cage, no one noticed the changes in everyone’s physical appearance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    
  </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Baka's notes: Just where are they?! What is waiting for them. Also note: yes, my OCs are mentionned and will appear in the future but won't have a large role, or any role at all tbh.<br/>Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this mystery.<br/>See you next time with either Slayers or 5in1 Bride</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Prologue 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The group find themselves in a Strange facility, but Despair is way too close behind them for them to explore silently.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>What will happen to our Ultimates...?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Prologue 3</span>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did you hear that?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hm? Hear what?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... Check the camera feed.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Um, alright?... the usual…same old same old… wait, what the? The elevator crashed! And…there’s people!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Despair scum?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“N-No. Teenagers!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Gear up, we’re getting to them, before </span>
  <em>
    <span>they</span>
  </em>
  <span> do.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aye aye, Ma’am!”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is everyone okay?” Naegi asked as he stood up, his leg and injuries stinging with pain. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m alive.” Leon groaned before being followed by the rest of the class in painful moans.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one was dead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wh-Where are we?” Sayaka stuttered, having some difficulties standing up because  Asahina was on top of her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once everyone managed to stand up and their eyes got used to the darkness, just enough for them to see silhouettes in the dark.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The door of the elevator opened with the crash, so everyone managed to get out of the cage without much trouble.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was not enough light for them to clearly tell where they were but they definitely could tell that the room they were in now was in shambles. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How on Earth did we survive a fall like that?” Togami asked as he scanned his surroundings.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Looks like something cushioned our fall.” Kirigiri said as she was staring at the weird substance pouring out from below the crashed elevator. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wanted to touch it but her instincts were pretty much shouting in her mind to not even think about doing that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi looked around, trying to get some light or anything to help the others. He then distinguished a double door at the end of the room and another headache hit the back of his brain as he started to remember where he was.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys! This way! Once we’re through those doors we’ll get help!” the Luckster exclaimed as he ran towards the double door.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi, wait! You shouldn’t run with those wounds!” Mukuro ran behind him, holding her head from a migraine, as all this started to feel awfully familiar.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The rest of the class followed the Soldier, not wanting to be left alone in an unknown place.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi pushed the doors open with a bright smile, hoping for help but his hopes were crushed when he saw that the big room was empty and in the same state as the rest of the building. He looked around, whispering that it couldn’t be true over and over again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi, I’m going to repeat myself here but… This place is abandoned.” Togami glared.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This can’t be… I thought… No, I mean-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi, where the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell</span>
  </em>
  <span> are we, for fuck’s sake!?” Mondo roared.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We… We’re in-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But a loud crash interrupted him, everyone turned towards Yasuhiro who was always behind everyone (to be the first to run away if problems occurred), the adult was shaking in his sandals, looking through the open double doors of the previous room. He was pointing at the elevator where a dead Ultimate Despair just fell onto his death.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>‘Th-Th-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then the Monokuma appeared, jumping on top of the dead Despair, crushing his bones and mask to a bloody mess.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They are here!!!” he shouted while holding his head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He slammed the doors and joined the others.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do we do now? fight them again?” Sakura asked Naegi as she raised her fists.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Luckster looked around and saw four big doors besides the entrance, two doors in front of each other on parallel walls.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No let’s run! The lock upstairs was new, there </span>
  <em>
    <span>are people</span>
  </em>
  <span> here, down the facility! We need to go to them.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Understood. Let’s split up!” Kirigiri ordered, “Two groups! No time to decide, let’s go!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The large group divided between two smaller groups, one of seven students and the other of eight.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi gave one last instruction to the group, “Guys! Take the right door, the other one leads to a dead end.” He yelled to Mondo’s group as he led his group to the door on his left “There will be an elevator at the end of the corridor, if it doesn’t work, there’ll be a staircase. Take it all the way down then go through the left door, we’ll meet in the big purple room!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span> do you know all that?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The three Monokumas destroyed the double doors and entered the room right after that question got asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No time to explain! Let’s go!” The Luckster yelled once more before disappearing with Togami, Fukawa, Kirigiri, Leon, Sayaka and Mukuro in the corridor, with two of the Monokumas following them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Indeed, there was no time to waste as the last Monokuma turned its attention to the rest of the teenagers.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go!” </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How the hell does Naegi-chi think that the elevators will work?! The lights are barely working!” Yasuhiro whined as he ran with the rest of his group.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Stop bitchin’! I think that’s the elevator!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And the Monokuma?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Still behind us!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When they arrived in front of the elevator door, it opened before anyone could notice that there were no buttons to call it. Without wasting a single second they got inside despite the elevator not having a visible well functioning light, pretty much like everything else in this place. The doors closed as soon as they all got in, sealing the Monokuma outside.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They started to search for the button to go down but the levator once again moved without anyone doing anything.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This was creeping everyone out but no choice but to go forward.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When the elevator stopped and its doors opened for everyone to go outside, they were met with a dark grey metallic room, they looked around to only see two main doors and one that led to the stairwell. The elevator doors closed behind them once everyone was out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hm, which door did Naegi tell us to go?” Celeste asked, still supporting Yamada with Chihiro helping her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t quite remember but I do remember he said to meet in a purple room!” Asahina exclaimed and ran to the right door, “Safety Department…” she read before opening the door, “It’s a green corridor here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sakura opened the other door that led to the ‘Information Department’, “Here it’s purple. This way everyone.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, Taka heard the elevator coming down again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did one of you call the elevator…?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Slowly, everyone turned their heads towards the doors, hoping dearly that it wasn’t what they thought it was. But their hopes were shattered when the doors opened only to show the large two toned bear behind them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Upupupu~” the Monokuma laughed and wave at them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The damned bear laughed to tears as the ex-students ran away in terror, when it finally calmed down it gave chase once again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The eight survivors ran down the purple corridors, there were a few open heavy looking doors  but they were no escape through the rooms behind them.. Ishimaru suddenly tripped over a large debris, the Monokuma behind them definitely noticed him as it was now heading his way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Bro!” Mondo yelled and jumped in front of his injured friend, armed with his metal bar.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m staying to help! Asahina, you lead the others to the purple room Naegi-kun talked about. Bring Ikusaba when you see her!” Sakura exclaimed, ready to jump back and help the Gang Leader.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright! Let’s go, everyone!” Asahina nodded and led the charge towards the room in question.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When they all disappeared in the darkness, Sakura joined Mondo for his fight.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But not even a whole minute later, a loud scream was heard from down the purple hallway and Yasuhiro ran full speed towards them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Help! M-Monsteeeer!!!” he yelled.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone was confused and stunned at what he just said, even the Monokuma.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hagakure! You asshole! How dare you run and leave us behind with injured people!?” They then heard Celeste hiss loudly as the rest of the group appeared, she was still supporting the injured Yamada.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But now Chihiro was supporting an injured Asahina who was bleeding from her temple and looked completely out of it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Asahina!!” The Ultimate Fighter gasped in shock.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“D-Don’t come… Weird… Metal... Ouuch…” she groaned, trying to stay on her feet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What the hell happened?!” Mondo yelled, quickly looking back at the Monokuma, only to see it staring intensely at the scene before it, “Huh?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then they all heard it…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A banging noise accompanied by a strange rubbing noise.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And shortly after, they all saw it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>The </span><em><span>thing</span></em> <span>wore a straight-jacket that wrapped the entirety of its body except what looked like the head. It was bending forward and still taller than anything anyone laid their eyes on… and yet, the intruder was on its knees. It’s… head was a metal shell shaped object that just kept banging against the walls.</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That explained the banging noise, and the rubbing was that the monster was crawling on its knees.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The thing seemed blind but suddenly accelerated its pace and aimed it’s metal head towards Celeste who screamed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thankfully, Sakura was much faster and managed to grab onto the thing, spin around and throw it against the Monokuma who suddenly jolted out of its stupor when the impact with the strange creature sent the both of them flying against the doors.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What followed froze everyone in place as the thing started immediately to bash its metallic head against Monokuma’s own, clearly denting it. The mechanical bear fought back, stabbing and slashing at its foe with its claws, making it bleed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But it seemed that it just made the monster on top of the bear fight more furiously as the tempo of its head bash grew faster and faster until the bear couldn’t keep up with it and tried to auto-destruct. Unfortunately for the bear, it looks like its AI was too damaged as the beeping didn’t ring and its metal head that was being hit after hit, caved inside its body and stopped moving.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The monster started to pant loudly, fake blood dripping from the metal head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Monokuma were filled with fake blood coursing through their bodies, for funsies and trauma, Mukuro explained when they first found out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“More.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone heard coming from the monster.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“More… death… MORE!!! DEATH!!!” it roared loudly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi… Where the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span> did you bring us…?” Mondo asked out loud.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi, where the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span> did you bring us?!” Leon yelled at his friend as he and the rest of the ex-students were waiting for the elevator down the corridor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mukuro and Fukawa were guarding the corridor for when the two Monokuma units appeared, the Writing Prodigy ready to give her place to her murderous other self to protect Togami. Surprisingly, they weren’t there yet but their singing of ‘upupupu~’ could be heard clearly echoing down from the darkness. Definitely to stress the students.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where the hell is the damn elevator?!” Togami cursed as he looked around for any kind of button to press to call it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The door to the staircase was stuck against something from the other side, there was no way forward but the elevator. It looked like it was operable because of the noise behind the doors but there was no way to call it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun, what do we do?” Kirigiri asked him as she was helping him to stay up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The… The elevator comes automatically when someone is near the door, or moves up and down when someone is already inside… or something.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean, </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘something’</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Sayaka asked, concerned by that last remark.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys! The elevator is here!” Leon exclaimed when he heard the doors starting to open.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The inside was barely lit, it was really hard to see what was inside the cage but they did hear something. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Small flapping noise. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh? Is that a bird?” Leon asked as he was the one standing in front of the entrance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A-A-A bird?” Naegi stammered, his eyes widening at a bad memory.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey it’s coming close- AH! Fucking bird pecked me!” the Baseball star exclaimed in annoyance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi saw him slowly raise his hand, ready to whack it away from his head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“DON’T TOUCH THE BIRD!!!” Naegi screamed, pushing himself from Kirigiri to tackle Leon to the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone looked at their direction as Naegi was on top of Leon, as if shielding him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wh-What the hell dude?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“NOBODY TOUCH THE BIRD! DO NOT DO IT!!” He screamed again as the bird started pecking on his head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi, what on </span>
  <em>
    <span>Earth </span>
  </em>
  <span>is happening?!” Togami demanded approaching them, only to be pecked himself by the bird on the forehead, “Ack!”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The Heir was about to swat the bird but he felt Naegi grab his ankle.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t. If you don’t want to die. Don’t.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one had a comeback at that statement.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Monokumas’ laughter echoed again, closer. It seemed to have attracted the bird’s attention as it flew towards the mechanical bears. A confused noise was heard then a blow was heard. One of the robots hit the bird to the ground and both resumed their march towards the students who were just standing there, curious about what was going to happen fixing them in place.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Though when the Monokumas were now within their perimeter of vision, everyone tensed up while Mukuro got in a fighting stance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then out of nowhere, in an incredible speed and without the Monokumas being aware, five spiky tendrils emerged from the darkness behind them, caught and dragged the left bear back to the obscurity, alarming the second one when it screamed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What followed next was a loud noise of ripping and tearing, no humans could see what was happening in the dark but the last standing Monokuma’s expression of terror was a good indication that its partner was being torn to shreds.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What followed emphasized that idea as a Monokuma arm was thrown from the darkness, and landed at Sayaka’s feet, fake blood splattering against her shoes. She let out a small shriek of terror as she fell down on her backside. Togami was shielding Fukawa’s eyes so she wouldn’t faint and bring out Shyo in an insanely confusing scene. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one noticed that the elevator had left and was going back upstairs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The carnage noises suddenly stopped and what followed was the sound of small wings flapping away. Nobody moved a muscle for at least ten seconds, not even the last Monokuma unit, until Leon whispered to Naegi that if he could now move away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Dude, can you get off of me now?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Monokuma shook its head back in focus and turned to the survivors, ready to resume its original plan: kill them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The bear charged and was blocked by Mukuro.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where’s the elevator?!” she yelled as she kicked the robot away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It was right there!! Where did it go?!” Leon exclaimed as he helped Naegi stand up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then the doors started to open again and two blue shining eyes attached to an armored silhouette were visible, stunning everyone once more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Monokuma charged towards them and the silhouette moved as fast, if not faster than the Ultimate Soldier as it struck the mechanical bear before Mukuro.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh. So a normal unit this time. Here.” the newcomer, a woman, said as she threw three flashlight to the teenagers who quickly grabbed them and aimed at her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was</span>
  <span> wearing a black and orange armored clothing along an orange cape with a gas mask similar to the head of a rabbit, with long ears with black borders and an orange interior. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you a-?” Togami started but was cut by an unsupportable laugh.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Upupupu~” The Monokuma roared in laughter before launching itself against the armored woman.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But again, she deflected the incoming claws with a high kick.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If it’s a normal unit, a blue blade should be more than enough.” she sighed as she started to look through her equipment while blocking each attack from the bear with her leg, sometimes she would punch its belly to send it away to give her more time to look for her weapon.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone was so confused at what was happening before them: the Monokuma, that even the Ultimate Soldier had some trouble to deal with, was being handed easily by one person. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah, there it is.” she said before grabbing a long blue blade and kicked the two toned bear once more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As soon as it was a few feet away from her, it was her turn to act as she danced the blade in her palm and with three swings of her weapon the Monokuma suddenly stopped moving. When it did, the bear was sliced in many parts and fell to the ground in bloody pieces.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And that’s done… but still greatly damage the weapon…” she sighed as she threw away the broken blade, “Is everyone okay?” she asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone nodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good… Oh I see now, you’re Makoto Naegi, aren’t you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hearing his name being called out startled Naegi and his friends. He slowly nodded once more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That explains how the elevator came down, I guess your data must still be in the archives.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ok! Time out!!” Togami suddenly yelled, looking exasperated, “Naegi! You better start explaining!” he demanded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“E-Explain what?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How is </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> data in a building like this? How do </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> even know this place? And how on Earth does the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Rabbit Mercenary Team</span>
  </em>
  <span> know you?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The woman tilted her head in confusion, she grabbed her helmet and took it off. She had short white hair and red eyes, but what really shocked everyone was that her skin was as white as her hair.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t tell them, Makoto Naegi? About this place?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I tried but got interrupted many times…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Luckster walked in front of the flashlights and everyone widened their eyes when they saw that his skin was as white as the Rabbit mercenary.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guys, we’re in a Facility of </span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Lobotomy Corporation</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>*</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>*</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>*</strong>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Prologue 3: … Lobotomy.</span>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <b>Danganronpa X Lobotomy Corporation </b>
</p><p>
  <b>PART 2</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Despair in Lobotomy</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    
  </b>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Many of you saw it coming, but I'm extremely satisfied of how many didn't really notice or had doubts!<br/>I hope you're excited for the future!<br/>Next update will be of this story, I still have to think much more for the next chapter of Slayers so it doesn't get reviews that would piss me off like the last one.<br/>See ya soon</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 1-1: Newcomers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>After being rescued by the Rabbit Mercenary Team, the ex-students  walk through the od Facility, hoping to find help in some way.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Merry Christmas everyone!<br/>Enjoy your present!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Chapter 1-1: Newcomers</span>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Togami had a storm of questions swirling inside his brain but before he could ask anything, Mukuro beat him to the punch and asked with a rather uncertain voice.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“N-Naegi… Are you saying… That </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> place is Lobotomy Corporation? Where you did an internship-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>You</span>
  </em>
  <span> had an internship in</span>
  <em>
    <span> Lobotomy Corporation</span>
  </em>
  <span>?!” Togami exclaimed, “How?!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“- with the monsters?” Mukuro finished her question.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Abnormalities.” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Naegi corrected her, “And yeah, I thought that if anyone could help us as I guided you here it would be the employees I talked about… But what happened here?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Forget about that! So the rumors are true?” Leon asked the woman.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The Rabbit mercenary put back her helmet on and told them to be quiet and hold all their questions for later, they must keep moving. She asked them where the rest of their friends were.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We made rendezvous at the room connecting the Purple Departement to the Yellow one.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I see. So they probably encountered another Abnormality.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What?! Are they okay!?” Naegi exclaimed in terror.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t worry. I’ll contact my men.” The armored woman said as she turned around and brought a hand to her earpiece, “Bravo. What’s the status?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Holy shit! LOOK AT OUR SKIN!!” she heard the redhead shout.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes Boss? I was about to contact you... The kids? Yeah we found them about to have a violent encounter with an Abnormality… Yeah it went well.” the Rabbit Mercenary snickered at the recent corpse of the Forsaken Murderer at his feet.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Meanwhile, another Rabbit Mercenary, a much, much massive one was treating the wounded of the group.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“There you go! That should stop the bleeding for a good time!” the large armored man said with a sweet voice.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks! I almost don’t feel any more pain!” Asahina smiled while the others were freaking out about the color of their skin that had turned completely white.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What the fuck?! How?! Why?!” Mondo exclaimed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t mind.”  Celeste smiled.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright kids, I contacted our boss, she’s with your friends. We’re meeting them soon. Let’s go.” the armored man said as he jumped down from the corpse, which disappeared from thin air a couple of seconds later.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Not really having a better option the survivors agreed, Celeste and Chihiro finally had some rest as they’ve been supporting Yamada ever since they got down here. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So where exactly are we?” Taka asked.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“One of the old factories of Lobotomy Corporation.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What? Really?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes… Didn’t your friend Naegi Makoto tell you that? He used to work here.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Say </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> now?” Mondo gasped, “He worked here?!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well it was more of a one week internship… Anyway, we’ll explain more once everyone is reunited.” the Rabbit Mercenary ‘Bravo’ said.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After a dozen of minutes and an elevator ride down to the Central Command Departement, the whole class was reunited and guided by the three Rabbit Mercenaries. Sayaka asked where they were going and the boss who presented herself as Myo in the meantime explained they were heading to Lobotomy Corp. HQ. She then asked in return what happened outside and surprisingly wasn’t very shocked when hearing about the Tragedy, but she was when hearing about Hope’s Peak failed killing game and how almost everyone had their memories erased. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I wanted to ask…” Naegi started.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What happened here, right?” Myo said and with the Luckster’s nod she let out a small sigh, “I guess we do have some time before us.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It happened pretty much at the same time as the rest of the world. ‘Despair’ infected a few employees around the globe and were starting to spread it throughout the Facilities. They were starting to do their work badly on purpose, getting in what seemed like a panic state despite being ‘healthy’ and letting Abnormalities escape their containment.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It was a damn miracle that the Abnormalities didn’t get infected by Despair… But they can get very angry from it.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It was unbelievable, L. Corp is the Rabbit Mercenaries' main client but they rarely needed our help that much… This was a complete mess. Getting so many calls for help in such short intervals, we let down more than one facility like that…</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After a couple of days, it was clear that something was very wrong and all Facilities were shut down.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The survivors, a very small number… were transported to the main HQ Facility which was closed until the event.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The other Facilities are as you can see now, just storage buildings for the Abnormalities.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>And now we’re some damn guardians for those freaks. Whenever HQ needs an Abnormality or extract one, we must take care of it.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Not only do we, the Rabbit Mercenary Team, have to keep the Abnormalities from going out, but we have to deal with the Despair scum that sometimes manage to slip inside this place. Thankfully we’re not running out of locks. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So that explains the new-looking lock…” Mukuro whispered.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“How on Earth did you guys get in by the way?” One of the Mercenaries asked.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We entered through a broken window and broke the lock with this.” Kirigiri said as she showed the red axe that she still had on her possession.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> “What the- that’s a EGO weapon! Where did you find that?!” Myo exclaimed as she looked at the weapon.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Ego weapon…? It was taped under a table, Naegi found it by pure chance.” the detective answered.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>At hearing the answer, Myo let out a laugh.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Aren’t you worried about running out of luck soon, Makoto Naegi?” she said between laughs, “First you find the remote of the exit of your school in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>gacha</span>
  </em>
  <span> machine, then you somehow manage to bring your whole class here without a single casualty, then you find a Ego weapon that not even </span>
  <em>
    <span>us</span>
  </em>
  <span> managed to find and finally the elevator.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What about the elevator?” asked one of the ex-students.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It was supposed to be off-line. We erased every worker's ID from the system so no one would get out of the Facility if something happened.” the large mercenary explained, “Though again, I guess we didn’t think of deleting old IDs that we were sure would never come back again. We take the stairs if we need to go upstairs to clean up some Despair scum.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Plus you survived that crash.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“There were some of Melting Love’s offspring that tried to escape through the chute, they cushioned your fall. Not only did they save your life by dying, but you saved us some trouble hunting them down before they escape.” Myo laughed again, “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Pure. Luck.</span>
  </em>
  <span> What a talent!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone looked at Naegi as he looked to the side, blushing in embarrassment. But he did wonder: how on earth was that possible? He knew that his luck wasn’t that </span>
  <em>
    <span>convenient. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He always knew that it worked in harmony with his bad luck: when bad luck hit him, good luck would pick him up from the ground. But it could also happen the other way around… If good luck is nice to him, bad luck will punch him soon enough... </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyway, we’re here.” The leader of the Rabbit Mercenary said as she opened a secret door in the middle of a red corridor.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The group arrived at the Disciplinary Departement and thankfully didn’t encounter any Abnormalities on their way there. Behind the door was a very long corridor. Myo explained that at the end of the corridor was a room with a teleporter that will bring them to HQ.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And yes, she had to do a demonstration of teleportation with her own device to shut up the skepticism of Kirigiri and Togami particularly, also surprising everyone to see such a device existing.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone ignored Hagakure’s exclamations about aliens and whatnot. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Asahina asked the reason for such a long corridor to the teleporter instead of just an adjacent room. The answer came from the large Mercenary who explained that like that whenever an Abnormality is detected in the corridor, they can lock the doors to the teleporter and trap the creature in the corridor for Suppression.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Once we get there, will you be joining us?” Naegi asked the Mercenary group.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Haha, nah, we have work here to contain the freaks. Taking care of them is the Agents’ work! But sometimes they’ll call us to graze the grass!” Myo laughed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“By grass, she means the targeted monsters.” the big mercenary explained in a whisper.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“But seriously… I’m just glad to be alive for more than a week…”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Before anyone could ask what she meant by that, the mercenaries received an emergency call.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s the matter Delta?” Myo asked in a serious voice.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You got Abnormalities coming to your location!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What Threat level?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“One ALEPH, three WAW and a HE! It’s the Mountain of Smiling Bodies, the Warm-hearted Woodsman and Queen Bee’s workers are approaching your group.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Wouldn’t they just kill each other?” the leader commented.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Only if they arrive at the same time.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“...Who’s closer?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“The Bees, there’s three of them. Encounter in T- one minute!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The atmosphere changed around the group.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s happening?” Mondo asked.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Abnormalities are coming… Dammit. And I didn’t want to do back and forth…” Myo sighed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you me-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Naegi didn’t have the chance to finish his question as he felt something stab his neck and inject some liquid in his veins. His vision started to get blurry as he fell on the floor, unable to move or support his own weight.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He heard someone scream his name as panic exploded among his friends. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He tried to stay conscious but the drug was stronger than him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Everything went dark.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span> When Naegi opened his eyes, he wasn’t feeling as bad as he would have expected from the sudden drug injection earlier. But he did have a small migraine, he tried reaching for his forehead only to notice that he couldn’t move his arms. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Not just that!</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He couldn’t move his body at all!! </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And that migraine wasn’t a migraine! it’s a metal strap wrapped tightly around his head on a metal bed! And now that he could see more clearly, he was in a white room he didn’t know at all!</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He tried to turn his head to the right, the friction of his skin against the metal hurting his forehead. He saw Ishimaru sleeping in the same condition as him. He didn’t look hurt so that was a relief. He then turned his head left and saw Asahina in the same state, but from his left he could also smell something.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He knew that smell oh so well. It was blood.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Was it the swimmer’s? Was it her injury? Or something else?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He was about to call her out but the sound of doors opening and a couple of voices coming in stopped him. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He quickly got back in the position he first started and feinted being still unconscious, knowing well that making his presence known was not a good idea at the moment.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“And that’s ten! Only five more to go!” one of the people said, a woman.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, hopefully this bunch won’t be a problem.” The other person, a man sighed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, hey, did you notice that everyone except freckles had something wrong with their brain?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Didn’t you listen to Miss Myo? All these Ultimates </span>
  <em>
    <span>except</span>
  </em>
  <span> for the Soldier had their memories erased… And also Spiky Hair over there, he managed to get some of them back.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Naegi almost flinched at hearing the man mentioning him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyway, let’s get to wor-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“WHAT THE-?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!” Naegi suddenly heard Mondo shout, “LET ME GO YOU ASSHOLES! WHERE’S EVERYONE!? UUUURGH!!! F-FUKAWA?! WAKE UP! I SAID WAKE UP!!” he yelled some more.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh come on, seriously? Every batch will have a trouble maker that wakes up earlier than the others? That’s the third one…” the man sighed once more and approached the biker.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“DON’T YOU TOUCH ME OR I SWEAR-!!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Go back to sleep, please, this is important for you.” the woman said in a sad tone.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I SAID DON’T-!! YOU!! You…. y…” Mondo fell silent.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Jeez! That’s the third kid to wake up!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Make it fourth.” a cool voice suddenly said right in front of Naegi.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The Luckster did let out a yelp this time, opening his eyes to see another woman with long ondulated hair looming over him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh? I didn’t expect </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span> to wake up.” the other woman said.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Olga, can you do it for us while we start on his friends?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course.” the woman said.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait! Why are you doing this?!” Naegi exclaimed, trying to get answers before they made him fall asleep again.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t worry Makoto Naegi. This is for your own good.” the woman, Olga, said before stabbing his neck with a needle and injecting him anesthesia.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“B-But…” the Luckster didn’t have the time to say anything else before drifting from consciousness.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And everything went dark once more.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun… Naegi-kun!” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When Naegi opened his eyes again, he immediately sat up and looked around him to be sure that everyone was alright, they were all there and looked safe, some were already awake and were trying to wake up the rest. Sayaka was the one who called him up.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Strange enough, everyone was wearing a black suit and tie that Naegi immediately recognized as the Lobotomy Corp. regular agent uniform. He then looked around.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They were in the Light Yellow main room of the Control Departement of a Lobotomy Corp. Facility. But this one wasn’t in ruin and there even were a few agents walking around. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh thank God you’re ok!” she exclaimed and embraced him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“U-Uh?” he blushed slightly, “Y-yeah I’m okay… Wait-”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Bro! You’re awake!!” Ishimaru interrupted his train of thoughts.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Guh… Yeah yeah… Fuckin’ hell, that was worse than Hagakure’s ‘special drink‘ at Chihiro’s 18th birthday…” he groaned as he scratched the back of his head.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey it wasn’t that bad…” Hagakure whined in a yawn.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone fell silent at the last exchange. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait. My memories! They’re back!!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>All students started to cheer at remembering their experiences, bonds and feelings that connected every member of class 78 of Hope’s Peak Academy. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Quiet!” Togami shouted.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Looks like he wasn’t cheering.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We can all talk about this later! We have something more important at hand!” he said, “First of all, Ishimaru, Yamada, Asahina and Naegi, how are you four feeling?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh? I’m alright.” Asahina said with a raised eyebrow.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Me too! I don’t feel any pain at all, looks like I leveled up! Hahaha!” Yamada laughed with a raised fist, Celeste rolled her eyes in amusement next to him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Same for me!” Ishimaru stated.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“As for me I don’t feel any pain either.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I could tell since you’re standing up as if nothing happened to your leg.” Kirigiri said, crouching at his side, inspecting his leg, “Can I?” she ‘asked’ but was already lifting the legs of his pants.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“H-Hey!” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s what I thought. The wound is gone.” she said.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What? That’s impossible!” Mukuro exclaimed before also crouching next to Kirigiri to examine the leg.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“H-Hey! Guys stop!!” Naegi blushed harder.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Sayaka and more ex-students were about to join the Soldier until Togami exclaimed once more.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Enough with the buffoonery! This is definitely odd but if we start talking about it we’ll be at it for hours. Next topic: we are all wearing the same suit that Naegi showed us after his internship at Lobotomy Corp. so it’s clear to me that we’ve been teleported to their HQ, like the Rabbit Mercenary explained before they backstabbed us.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh that’s right! Myo and the others knocked us unconscious! Even Sakura-chan and Ikusaba-san!” Asahina remembered, “Though after that I just woke up here.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s right!” Naegi exclaimed, “I remember tha-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <b>
    <em>BWOOOOOOOWBWOOOOOOW</em>
  </b>
</p>
<p>
  <b>
    <em>-First Trumpet-</em>
  </b>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wh-What the hell is that?!” Leon yelled.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh no. That means an Abnormality just breached!” the Luckster paled.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“And that brings us to the next question.” Togami continued, “Now that I remember everything you told us about your internship, and that I know that it wasn’t stupid lies but actually the truth. </span>
  <b>
    <em>Why</em>
  </b>
  <span>? Why on Earth did you bring us here, Naegi?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>All the Ultimates turned their heads towards Naegi, waiting for his answer.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He opened his mouth, but no words came out, he slowly widened his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Y-You’re right! Why? Why did I bring you here?! I know how dangerous this place is! McIlton-san, even Red-san </span>
  <em>
    <span>told</span>
  </em>
  <span> me to not come back! Why on Earth did I think it would be a good idea? And also… </span>
  <em>
    <span>How</span>
  </em>
  <span> did I bring you here?! I shouldn’t even know where the old Factory was supposed to be located, I always had a blindfold when going to work during my internship!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>There were many more questions left without answers but before he could shout them out the lights of the Department went off.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“AAAH!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s happening?!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Bro! Chihiro! Stay close!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“M-M-Master!!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t come closer!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“GUYS! Calm down!” Naegi exclaimed, somehow managing to shut up everyone before there was more panic.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Wh-What is going on, Naegi-kun?” Sayaka asked him with a trembling voice, fear clear in her eyes.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It means that Big Bird, the Abnormality who breached, reached our departement.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s bad! Very very bad!!” Hagakure screamed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah! But all we need to do is leave the departement to be safe! I’m sure that all of us here is a big mistake, so let's just leave the departement, search for a high level agent that could help us speak to the Manager. And everything will be alright, ok?” He smiled at his friends.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They didn’t look certain but nodded nonetheless, Naegi's smile grew larger and gave them a nod of determination as he walked towards one of the doors that lead to the elevator to another Department. As the door opened, he turned to his friends.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t worry guys!” he started, barely noticing everyone looking at him with terror.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Everything will be o...kay?” he slowed down, finally seeing that they were looking </span>
  <em>
    <span>past</span>
  </em>
  <span> him, something </span>
  <em>
    <span>behind</span>
  </em>
  <span> him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He slowly turned around, and met face to face with a familiar creature, it’s many many red eyes glaring at him as it’s beaks with sharp teeth were wide open.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Before he could even say or do anything, the monster snapped its beak close and with it, decapitated the young Luckster.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>
    
  </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And everything went dark for good.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>You have no idea how much of an enormous grin is on my face right now.</p>
<p>I dunno what to write next between Slayers or Despair in Lobotomy, what do you guys think?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 1-2: Keys to a grim Future</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Naegi died, the others must survive.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Be ready...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Chapter 1-2: Keys to a grim Future</span>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Boss, you sure it was a good idea to send those kids to HQ? I mean… They just survived the Hell up there… Now this?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You know the orders. Anyone who gets here gets sent there. They need all the help they can get if we want to end this Tragedy outside.” Myo said in annoyance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know I know… Uf. Those stairs are always so damn annoying.” Bravo sighed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Talking big for someone who’s not carrying a corpse.” The other Rabbit mercenary growled as he was carrying on his shoulder the Despair corpse that fell on the elevator.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, we’re almost there. There should be four more Despair outside, kill on sight.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Ma’am!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The moment they set foot outside the storehouse, the Despair noticed them and immediately rushed towards them for some kills, unaware of who they were preying on. It didn’t take a single minute for the Rabbit Mercenary trio to kill the four fools.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, let’s resume the plan again.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We dispose of the Despair corpses on their truck being remotely controlled towards the closest city and get rid of the kids’ cars.” Myo explained.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The truck has destroyed wheels.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Myo sighed, looks like this will take time, maybe they’ll find a few wheels big enough in the Facility or storage. They should be quick. What if the kids were being followed…</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was pretty dark in the room, and yet they all saw what happened clearly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The many many red eyes of the creature that was standing behind Naegi glowed in the dark… And that lantern it was holding illuminated the scene just brightly enough for everyone to see the monster’s beak eat the Luckster’s head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi was dead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His headless body stumbled a bit backwards before falling on its butt, sitting on the ground… like… like a lifeless doll, but without the head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Because Naegi was dead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The monster’s eyes turned back to yellow and locked on the rest of the deceased’s classmates. It took a few steps forward, shing its lantern and not even giving a glance at the body sitting at its feet, as if it wasn’t there at all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Because Naegi was dead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi was dead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He. Was. DEAD.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sayaka was the first to finally react by letting out a deafening scream of anguish, bringing everyone out of their terrified and shocked stupor. The monster was now headed towards them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mukuro quickly got in a fighting stance and reached for her knife only to notice that it wasn’t there, instead she had some sort of riot baton. She cursed under her breath, the tears in her eyes threatening to roll down her cheeks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She grabbed the weapon and pointed it towards the monster that was still walking towards the group. Trying to keep her composure and emotions in check. But her mind was against that, she wanted to scream like Sayaka, angry that she couldn’t keep Naegi safe. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she was also scared, that creature that she never saw before ate the head of her friend in one bite, that… that…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What the hell are you guys doing here?!” a voice suddenly shouted from behind them, “Wait aren’t you… Damnit! No time for that! Yoon, Sanchez, Eva, you keep Big Bird busy while I take this… very damn large group to safety! Red should be joining you shortly.” the man said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aye Connor!” the three other people shouted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go! Follow me!” He shouted to the young adults.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Togami and Mondo nodded and after shouting the instruction to the rest, they all followed that tall man, Connor, outside the Departement, away from the Abnormality.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Away from Naegi’s remains.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright. We should be safe here.” Connor sighed as he led the big group in the Purple Department, “Well… If </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> guys are here… Where’s Naegi?” he looked around with a smile.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Connor was</span>
  <span> a very tall man, he had long brown hair and hollow cheeks with small dark green eyes. He was wearing a grey overall: grey suit and pants with a black tie, a large grey coat that had a weird leg-like pattern on it in different shades of grey and he had a glowing black heart with blue border adorning his chest.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At hearing the name of their deceased friend, the Ultimates all looked down with dreaded expressions. Connor knew that look oh so well, and it didn’t take long for him to put two and two together.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh… So it was him upstairs who… Bummer.” he sighed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>‘Bummer’...</span>
  </em>
  <span>? </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘Bummer’</span>
  </em>
  <span>?! Our friend… Just died! What the Hell are you saying, ‘Bummer’?!” Asahina exclaimed with tears in her eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hina… Please calm down…” Sakura said in a sad tone as she put her hand on her friend’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Bu-...” the swimmer started but only broke down to tears.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Connor raised an eyebrow and quickly understood the mood, “Oh I see, first time, huh?” he said, “I’m sorry… Listen. The day is almost over so come with me, I’ll bring you to where you’ll spend the night.” he said before turning around.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shortly afterward, an alarm was heard around the Facility.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yup, day’s over.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, this is the living room. You weren’t supposed to come today so your rooms are not ready yet, sorry.” Connor apologized, “Make yourselves comfortable. We’ll talk tomorrow… Also pyjamas are in this cabinet if you need them.” he pointed at the furniture in the corner of the large room, “Good night.” he finished and left.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one said a word or moved after this one sided exchange. Their thoughts just went back on what was actually happening to them...They escaped the Killing Game of Hope’s Peak… Survived for a month outside in a World of Despair… Somehow reached a facility of Lobotomy Corp… Only to get transported to the final one standing… and…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And Naegi died.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time Chihiro was the first to break the silence with a sob as memories of their time with Naegi flooded their mind. Then one by one, the Ultimates started to tear up and cry the death of their dear friend. The ones who weren’t straight out crying like Sakura or Mondo had tears falling down their cheeks as they looked angrily at some corner of the room for not being able to save the young man. And the ones who would never want to be seen crying did their utmost best to hide the tears in their eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one said a word, leaving the tears and sadness to do all the talking needed for at least a couple of hours.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once everyone calmed down and dried their tears, Kirigiri spoke up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright everyone… We need to plan what is our next step of action.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” Hiro asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What she means,” Togami interrupted to explain, “is that the reason Lobotomy Corporation drugged us and put us in Employee suits is because they want to force us to work for them and die in the hand of those monsters.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“R-Really? But do we really have the stats to survive in this place?!” Yamada screeched.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I mean, even Naegi who had more experience…” Leon started, looking down.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Which is why we’re going to escape this place.” Kirigiri said in a determined way, not a single trace of incertitude in her voice, “That’s what Naegi would have wanted.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’s right. He risked his life to even save me a month ago and would do the same to everyone in this room.” Mukuro added.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They all nodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> “But how exactly are we supposed to leave? We got here by teleporter and we were unconscious during the process.” Chihiro asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There’s no way that we’ll be able to leave immediately… We have no choice but to play their game until we find a way out.” Togami announced, “Which means there’s a possibility…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That some of us might meet the same fate as Naegi.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone got quiet at that remark, none of them wanted to die. They survived this long... They can’t die like this! </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“For now I propose that we try to adapt as best as we can and follow their instructions tomorrow.” Celeste suddenly said, “It’s best that we don’t try to fight them back… for now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Holly crap, I totally forgot what you looked like without the goth lolita outfit and drills expansions.” Hiro said, earning a glare from the gambler.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t remind me…” she hissed… “I hope I can get some new ones soon…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re going to survive this! We won’t let Naegi’s memory disappear with us!” Mondo exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And after more chatter, they all agreed to try and sleep for the night and prepare themselves for what awaits them the next day. But even after all those encouraging words, no one managed to sleep and they were still fearing about what would come next.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next morning, a tall, almost bald man with wide eyes and an emotionless expression entered the ex-students ‘room’. He was wearing a big black cloak covered in bandages with some black feathers at the collar, he had one hand in his pocket. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone was awake and ready to go.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh. You guys are actually gonna behave nicely? Didn’t expect that.” the man said with a monotone voice, “Looks like I won’t need to use it. Please follow me.” he said and turned around.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The large group exchanged some looks and nodded, they needed to play the part to not raise any suspicions…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The bald man introduced himself quickly and nonchalantly as Armageddon, ‘a top level employee’ he added. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...most of the time.” he finished, making a couple of people raise an eyebrow.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The strange man brought the ex-students in a large room where Connor was waiting for them and smiled when he saw the group.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What was very particular about the room was the machine… It looked like an arcade one. It was rather bland and classic looking. But what really stood out was the big white box shaped  object attached to the back of the machine, the box had some gold straps on the side and a big neon sign with the word ‘EXTEND’ on it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah Armageddon, you brought them. Did you-” Connor said to his co-worker</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No. They followed pretty calmly. Do you have the key?” the partially bald man answered and asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Right there.” the long haired man answered by taking some little X shaped object from his pocket.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright then, I’ll leave you to it. I’m going back to work. Nothing There won’t be calm by itself…” the employee said before leaving the room without saying any other word to the students.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The group all had their gaze focused on the long haired man who was approaching the machine.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Watch this.” he said with a smile as he inserted the object in his hand into the arcade machine.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The machine then suddenly came to life, making some 8-bit sounds and a text appeared on the screen.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p><b>DO YOU WANT TO USE LOB POINTS TO EXTEND THE DATA ON THE X-KEY?</b><b><br/></b><b>YES</b> <b>&gt;NO</b></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Connor used the joystick on the machine to change the pointer on ‘YES’ and pressed a button. The text changed.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <b>COMMAND CONFIRMED✰</b>
</p><p> </p><p><b>DO YOU WANT TO USE EXTRA LOB POINTS TO INCREASE STATS?<br/></b><b>YES</b> <b> &gt;NO</b></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Connor this time pressed the ‘NO’ button.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <b>COMMAND CONFIRMED✰</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The machine then turned off and loud noises could be heard from the box. And after half a minute of noises, a very big compartment opened up like a drawer on its side, some blue light glowed from the component.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well? Anyone wants to take a look?” the tall man asked with a smile once he saw what was inside the large drawer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one dared to move, feeling uneasy about whatever was inside except for Kirigiri who frowned with determination and walked forward. She glanced at the drawer and what she saw made her eyes go wide and her iron mask fell for more than just a few seconds as she brought her gloved hands to her mouth and let out a loud gasp.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wh-What the-?!” she exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah, he’s waking up.” Connor said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What is inside?” Togami demanded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s-it’s…” Kirigiri stammered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inside the compartment, floating in a blue liquid and with the same cross object on the belly was…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>...Naegi Makoto.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Naegi slowly opened his eyes as he heard voices around him. He instinctively reached out, grabbed the border of the box he was in and pulled himself out. He was confused… He remembers being face to face with Big Bird then… darkness…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Urgh… Wh-What happened?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He doesn’t even remember what he was doing in that box… soaking in that strange water… Also why were all his friends looking at him like that… And why was he naked?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wait, what.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He looked down and turned all red.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“WHY AM I NAKED?!” he exclaimed and brought his hands to cover his privates.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Let me get some clothes for you.” Connor smirked before walking away to give some space to the group of friends.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“M-McIlton-san?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Naegi-kun… Is that really you?” Sayaka asked with a trembling voice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“NO!” Togami suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the naked should-be-dead classmate, “I can accept Teleportation, Monsters and weird Organisations but </span>
  <em>
    <span>this!!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Human Resurrection? No! That’s not possible! Naegi. Is. Dead!” he shouted some more, shaking his head in disbelief.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s right! That means he’s a g-g-g-g-g-ghooooost!!!” Hagakure exclaimed in horror.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What?!” Yamada screeched with him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What?” Naegi said in confusion.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Everyone SHUT UP!!” Sayaka yelled, silencing everyone, she turned once more towards Naegi, tears in her frowning eyes, “Is that really you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Y-Yes! How could it not be me?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But you… Died… I-If you’re really Naegi Makoto! Tell me something only he could know!” the Idol exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh… Alright. But are you sure you want me to say it in front of everyone?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At this statement, the blue haired girl blushed and approached the still naked brunet who blushed even harder. She leaned forwards so he could whisper what he was about to say to her. After he told her, her eyes went wide, she took one step back as tears suddenly poured out of her eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And just as suddenly, she jumped in his arms, crying out his name.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A-Ah! Maizono-san wait!” Naegi stammered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Seeing the scene and confirmation that Naegi was there and alive, other students started to approach and join in a group hug.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“WAAAAAAIT!” He screamed, “Everyone, back! I’m naked here!!” he yelled some more, his face red as a tomato.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>His friends all stop in their movement, realizing that it was indeed true that the Luckster was standing in front of them completely naked with his hands covering his private parts. Some started to grin while most looked away, blushing. They were all so focused on seeing their friend alive that they ignored the fact he was in his birthday suit during all the exchange.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And here’s your clothes.” Connor said, suddenly beside him and giving him some folded employee suit and underwear.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Naegi immediately grabbed the clothes to better hide his nether region. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You can dry and get dressed behind the Extend machine.” the older man pointed at the machine Naegi came out of.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He nodded, his face still flushed and walked towards the space to change.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That’s when Mondo decided to jab at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey Naegi! Nice ass!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Luckster let out some gibberish screech as he threw a hand behind him to cover his butt while walking faster, making everyone, even Connor laugh.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>A few minutes later, Naegi came back to his group, dressed this time. his face was still a bit flushed from the previous embarrassment. Some of his friends were looking at him with grins on their faces, making him send a non-threatening glare at them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, I guess you have a lot of questions. We have some time before your next meeting with some higher ups, so ask away.” Connor grinned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright then.” Togami said before anyone else then pointed at the machine, “What on Earth is this thing that can bring the dead back to life?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is Abnormality Tool T-09-0∞0, the Extend Machine.” The man started, “While it does bring people from the dead, there is some catch.” he started.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Extend Machine was an old arcade machine that lost most of its secondary functionalities. But the main one was still active and vital for Lobotomy Corporation’s final stand against the Despair in the outside world: Extend lives, but only if you had enough points. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Those points, that the company renamed ‘Lob Point’, are obtained at the end of a successful day with a score determined by the Abnormality depending on the number of casualties. Those points can be used to extend the lives of fallen employees and also to make them stronger during this new extended life until they fall again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But one of the lost functionalities of the machine was resistance to certain death factors, for example if you died by being crushed, in your extended life your body would be more resistant and would have survived from being crushed to a certain limit. The only second functionality available is the ‘trauma of death resistance’ that you get when you extend your life for the first time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That is pretty accurate… I mean. I clearly remember dying by Big Bird’s beak… And I feel scared of that thought… but way less that I expected.” Naegi blinked, reaching a hand to his neck, the brief feeling of having his head decapitated sending a chill down his spine.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And finally the most important part of the Extend Program is the X-Key. This object stores every data and memories of the person who is connected to it. It heals all kinds of damage prior to one year before the first data-save.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What exactly does this OP item look like?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Didn’t you guys notice yet? Naegi had one on his belly, over his belly button. That’s an X-Key. In fact, you all have one!” Connor said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At hearing that, everyone touched their stomach or checked it and gasped at seeing that instead of the little hole was a metallic X.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The X-Key can’t be detached from the body and if the body dies, at the end of the day the corpse will turn to ashes leaving only the employee's clothes, not EGO equipment, and the Key behind.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For some reason, the Abnormalities can’t destroy an X-Key, even if the employee gets devoured or absorbed, the X-Key will remain behind or will be spit out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But… if we have the X-Key on us right now…” Chihiro started.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Y-Yes… It means you all died when arriving once already. The portal makes accidents like that. Um… Y-You should ask a higher-up for more information...” Connor looked away, suddenly losing all the smiles and confidence he showed until now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was clear for at least four of the Ultimates here… he was lying. Something else happened. Something that he didn’t know or couldn’t tell them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Before anyone could ask more questions, a small woman with green hair barged in the room.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah! There you are! Malktuth is waiting for you!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“F-Frikss-san?!” Naegi exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh hey kid! Long time no see!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“B-B-But-” the Luckster stammered, he clearly remembers that she… died or something.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Extend Machine. You know the drill by now, Naegi.” Pauline Frikss smirked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’s right though. A Sephirah wants to meet you to talk in more detail of the situations you all are in now.” Connor clasped his hands together and led the way, “Follow me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You heard him, kids. Let’s go.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The students were starting to get increasingly nervous. They all died already? But when? And with the X-Key on them… can they even leave this place anymore?</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So yeah, I used the Extend Machine from Zanki Zero and made it an Abnormality to explain the Lob Points and Character maker in the game.<br/>Hope you liked the chapter!<br/>Next will be either Slayer or 5in1 Bride (finally!)</p>
        </blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29399859">Despair in Lobotomy: Side-stories</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOverlordOfIce/pseuds/TheOverlordOfIce">TheOverlordOfIce</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
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